Sixty metres of red soil.One hundred & thirty metres of clean water.
In Hamisi, Vihiga County, the earth runs rich red for the first sixty metres —
beautiful for tea and maize, ruinous for a borehole that has to deliver clear domestic water. Kisima sealed
the entire red-soil column with sixty metres of hard PVC surface casing and drilled on to
130 metres — finishing with 3 cubic metres per hour of water that
actually looks like water.
130 mTotal depth
60 mPVC surface casing
3 m³/hrDomestic yield
Hard PVCSealed against red soil
The Vihiga brief
A domestic borehole the family can drink from on day one.
Hamisi sits in the green, hilly heart of Vihiga County — fertile, wet, and underlain by deep tropical red soils.
The brief was simple: clean water from the first pour, sized for a household. The honest answer
was a longer surface casing than most boreholes need.
130 m
Total drilled depth
3 m³/hr
Confirmed yield
60 m
Hard PVC surface casing
Home
Domestic use
The challenge
Vihiga's red soil goes deep. Sixty metres deep.
Most boreholes need maybe ten or twenty metres of surface casing — just enough to anchor the well and seal
out the loose topsoil. Hamisi is different. The red ferrallitic soil here extends right down to 60 metres
before competent rock takes over. Drill straight through it and your water comes up red, every day, forever.
0 m60 m130 m
0 – 60 mRed soil zone — tropical ferrallitic clay-rich earth, the colour of brick. Will stain any water it touches.
Source of red water
60 – 130 mCompetent rock — stable, drillable open hole, water-bearing fractures and the production aquifer below.
Production aquifer · 3 m³/hr
60 m hard PVC casing
Open hole · 60 → 130 m
Why the casing has to be sixty metres, not ten.
A borehole's surface casing is its sanitary skin — it physically separates the well
from the formation around it. Anywhere the casing is missing, the formation can leak into your water:
shallow contamination, fines, and in Hamisi's case, iron-rich red clay.
The right casing length is whatever it takes to seal off every metre of unstable or contaminating
formation. At Hamisi, that number is sixty metres on the nose — short enough to fit
the budget, long enough that no red soil ever touches the inside of the well.
Hard PVC, not thin-wallHeavy-duty class PVC that holds shape against soil pressure and lasts decades underground.
Sealed every metre of red soilCasing runs from 0 to 60 m — exactly matching the depth of the red zone. No bypass possible.
Open hole below 60 mCompetent rock holds its own shape — no casing needed, more water reaches the pump.
Without proper casing
Red, cloudy water that stains laundry, blocks filters, and never quite tastes right. The borehole becomes a daily disappointment.
60 m PVC
With Kisima's 60 m casing
Clear, clean water the family is happy to drink, cook with, and serve to guests. The borehole becomes a daily upgrade to life.
The casing engineering
How a borehole becomes a water source you can trust.
Three things had to be right for Hamisi to deliver clean water from day one. Get any one of them wrong
and the family gets red water, no matter how deep you drill.
Match the casing to the soil
Sixty metres of red soil means sixty metres of casing. Anything less leaves an open path for the formation to bleed into your water.
Use hard PVC, not light wall
Heavy-duty class PVC casing — engineered to handle soil pressure, ground movement, and the long, quiet life of a domestic borehole.
Develop the well properly
After casing, the borehole is flushed and test-pumped until the water runs clear. We only hand over a borehole when the water passes the eye test.
Domestic sizing
Three cubic metres an hour — plenty for a Vihiga home.
Pumped sensibly into storage, 3 m³/hr covers a whole household and then some. Here is what that flow actually buys.
Comfortably above what a family compound burns through in a day — with margin for a kitchen garden.
A typical household uses 1,000–2,000 litres a day for drinking, cooking, washing, and hygiene. 3 m³/hr fills
that in well under an hour. The pump rests, the borehole rests, and the family always has water.
Drinking & cookingCleaner than most piped supplies in the area
Bathing & laundryNo red stains on clothes or basins, ever
Kitchen gardenEnough flow to irrigate a small plot in the dry months
Guest & neighbour shareHeadroom to share with the immediate neighbourhood
How we built it
From a red-soil site to a clear-water tap.
01
Site & soil read
Walk-over with the family. Confirm the red-soil depth and the right casing strategy.
02
Drill the red zone
Push through the full 60 m of red ferrallitic soil with controlled flushing.
03
60 m PVC casing
Drop and seat the hard PVC surface casing — the full red-soil column sealed shut.
04
Open-hole to 130 m
Drill on in competent rock until production-quality water indicators appear.
05
Develop & test
Flush and test-pump until the water runs clear. Confirmed yield: 3 m³/hr.
On site in Hamisi
Photographs & clips from the build.
Real images from the Hamisi site — rig setup, the casing being lowered, and the green Vihiga setting that defines the project.
Video · SiteDrilling at Hamisi — Vihiga CountyVideo · CasingPVC casing — HamisiRigRed soilSiteActionDrill at work — HamisiCasingPVC casing on siteCrewProgressCompleteHamisi borehole — completed
"
Every other borehole in our area gives red water. Ours is clean from the very first pour — Kisima knew the
red soil here went deep and put in proper casing all the way. We finally have water we can drink straight from the tap.
Red soil in your area? Don't let it ruin your borehole.
If you're in Vihiga, Kakamega, Bungoma, Siaya, Kisii or anywhere on red tropical soils, the right casing length
is the difference between a borehole you love and one you regret. Talk to Kisima before you commit to drilling.
Rig
Red soil
Site
Action
Casing
Crew
Progress
Complete
